Genentech Tests Cloud Computing

As Michael Liedtke of Associated Press reported last week, and subsequently now we can also report, that indeed Genentech has migrated its 16,000 employee’s to Google Apps for its email and for some office suite applications. However, the more interesting back story to this article was before they made the decision, Genentech wanted to ensure that Google would scale. Google . . . scale? That’s right they questioned what kind of user experience there employees would have when accessing applications deployed in a cloud. To get comfortable, Genentech decided to do some Cloud Testing using SOASTA’s new On Demand CloudTest Service. Over the course of a couple weeks Genentech were able to test several different user scenarios including having 16,000 simulated Genentech employees hitting Google Calendar at the same instant. The testing went well, and the rest is history. Genentech has dipped their big toe into the Cloud Landscape, and by all the feedback we have received, it went very well.